Online Health and Physical Education I (HP9) is designed to allow students to make reasonable choices regarding a broad range of physical activities while they take control of their own health and well-being. Students will exit the course with an understanding of general wellness and how exercise, nutrition, stress, mental health risk behaviors and the environment can impact wellness. Students will gain a better understanding of their own community and its resources as related to improving health and wellness. Emphasis is placed on maintaining a physically active lifestyle.
Students will participate in a variety of self-selected physical activities, as well as develop a program for lifetime fitness. Students will be evaluated in Physical Education components based upon the time spent performing an activity and the percentage of time within the calculated target heart rate zone. Activities should include lifetime activities, such as walking, running, weight training, yoga, Pilates, dance, golf, bowling, swimming, and tennis. Activities can also include team sport activities such as basketball, soccer, or softball. Students will create SMART goals based on fitness tests or challenges and will be re-accessed as needed. Health Topics include: Mental Wellness and Social Emotional Skills, Safety and Injury Prevention, Substance Abuse Prevention, Violence Prevention, Body Systems, Nutrition, Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Community and Environmental Health, Physical Health, and First Aid, AED, and CPR hands-only training to meet the Virginia graduation requirement.
This version of the course is delivered entirely online using the Virtual Virginia Beach e-Learning platform. Specialized computer skills and platform familiarity are developed during the prerequisite Online Orientation. Information about Online Learning, the necessary computer equipment and other aspects of this opportunity are found on the VBSchools.com web page, at the Distance Learning link on the Programs drop-down menu.
Students also participate in health education to develop health literacy—meaning they acquire an understanding of health concepts and the skills needed to make healthy decisions to improve, sustain, and promote personal, family, and community health. These skills align with core competencies (i.e., self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship building, and responsible decision-making) identified in the CASEL framework for social and emotional learning (https://casel.org/core-competencies/).